KAP 2013-1 Prince of Wales Bridge and the Ottawa/Gatineau Skyline in Winter

Aerial photograph of the city skylines of Ottawa on the right and Gatineau on the left. The frozen Ottawa River passes between.

This Kite Aerial Photography session took place on the Ottawa River shoreline where the Prince of Wales Railway Bridge lands on the Quebec side in the city of Gatineau. Most of the images point towards the Ontario side as they are pictures of the bridge, Lemieux Island and the city of Ottawa skyline. Chaudiere falls is in the middle of the river in the foreground of the aerial skyline photographs of Ottawa/Gatineau.

The Prince of Wales Bridge is not currently in use, and you can see that by the snow on the tracks where only people and dogs have traversed. The bridge is a part of the focus of ongoing discussions regarding rapid transit in the Ottawa/Gatineau region. It has been proposed to operate light rail commuter transit over the bridge.

Actually, one is not supposed to trespass on the bridge as it can be dangerous and accessibility on the Ontario side is difficult due to construction. Despite this, the bridge is often used in model shoots by professional, and not so professional, photographers. Actually, in the picture below, I’m already beyond the sign but hardly in a dangerous location.

Go here for more images from this session.

Prince of Wales Railway Bridge meets the Quebec shoreline of the Ottawa river. That’s me down there, the kite aerial photographer, with the kite line washed out in PhotoShop.

Prince of Wales Bridge runs from the Quebec side in Gatineau, where I am currently flying my kite, across Lemieux Island where there is a filtration plant, and then the bridge continues to the Ontario side in Ottawa.

© Rob Huntley Photography / STOCK Photography / Like My Facebook /

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Aerial photos of the Ottawa River on display at the offices of Ottawa Riverkeeper

I have recently been invited to display 5 photographs in the entranceway to the offices of the Ottawa Riverkeeper – ottawariverkeeper.ca
These are kite aerial phographs of the Ottawa River. This exhibit will be on display for a six month period, to the end of May.

The offices are above Trailhead on the third floor. So the next time you drop by the Trailhead store, go through the office entrance at the left and up to the third floor to room 301.
Nov 20, 2012 to approx. May 31, 2013
Ottawa Riverkeeper
301-1960 Scott Street
Ottawa, ON
K1Z 8L8

Here are the 5 images on display (captions courtesy of Alexandra Brett of the Ottawa Riverkeeper):

The view across the Ottawa River at the former E.B. Eddy paper mill shows the once-thundering Chaudière Falls tamed by dams and diversions. Over 60 m wide, and with a drop of 15 m, the falls powered the growth of Hull (seen across the river) and the City of Ottawa from 1800 onward. Two hydro stations still operate on Chaudière Falls.
April 25, 2010.
18” x 36” Framed Print

The City of Ottawa draws its drinking water from the Ottawa River. The Lemieux Island Plant, seen here, is one of two water-treatment facilities run by the City. Ottawa’s drinking water is rated as some of the safest in the world, but damage to the river caused by sewage, pollution, dams and shoreline destruction put our drinking water at risk.
April 25, 2010.
18” x 36” Framed Print

Over 90% of a river’s life depends on the first few metres next to the shore, the area most likely to be damaged by riverside development. Maintaining natural shorelines with trees and shrubs – as seen here at Deschênes Rapids – helps stabilize banks and protect the river from pollutants and sediment in storm water.
March 23, 2008.
16” x 20” Framed Print

The Ottawa River hosts 10 yacht clubs in the Ottawa-Gatineau region alone. Canoes, kayaks, power boats – even Olympic-class rowing shells – also ply the river’s many reaches and bays. Here, sailboats at Nepean Sailing Club in Ottawa’s west end quietly await their next regatta.
May 24, 2008.
16” x 20” Framed Print

A sailboat on the Ottawa River passes Pinhey’s Point, part of Pinhey’s Point Historical Site. The estate, built in 1820 by Hamnett Kirkes Pinhey, has been preserved as a museum. The Ottawa River is home to 8 national historic sites and numerous pioneer villages, interpretive centres, community museums and historic houses.
November 9, 2011
24″ x 36″ Framed Canvas Print

aerial art / aerial photos / aerial greeting cards / aerial canvas prints for sale

aerial landscape art / aerial landscape photos / aerial landscape greeting cards / aerial landscape canvas prints for sale

© Rob Huntley Photography / Rob`s Photo Cards / STOCK / Like My Facebook / About.Me

KAP 2011-16 – Lebreton Flats at Bayview Transitway Station – October 30, 2011

This session was planned to take advantage of the late afternoon light shining on the Ottawa Skyline. The view is always great when driving along the Ottawa River Parkway towards the city over the rise at the level of Lemieux Island and the Bayview Transitway Station. So I made the goal of this outing to make low-level aerial images of the nicely lit skyline with the Ottawa River Parkway providing lead-in lines. The wind was great for the FLED with fully remote rig. I took advantage of the location to also take shots of the Bayview Transitway Station, Lemieux Island and the old Prince of Wales Railroad Bridge, and the transitway in two directions: leading into the city and also leading away from the city alongside Scott Street (but shooting more or less into the sun).

These images were taken from a camera suspended below a kite line, a method known as kite aerial photography or KAP for short.

Aerial view of the city of Ottawa skyline and Gatineau (Hull) on the left.

Aerial view of the transitway (left) leading into the Ottawa city skyline. Albert Street/Wellington Street on the right.

Aerial photograph of the O Train station at the Bayview Transitway Station. Looking down Scott Street on the left and the bus transitway on the right. Tom Brown Arena is at the top left.

Aerial photograph of the City Centre building near Lebreton Flats. Bayview Transitway Station in the foreground.

Aerial view of Lemieux Island and the Prince of Wales Railroad Bridge and me.

You can see additional pictures in the Kite Aerial Photography Gallery – Lebreton Flats at Bayview Transitway Station – October 30, 2011.

© Rob Huntley

Aerial view of power lines in winter

New in my Getty Images portfolio:
These power lines cross the Ottawa River from Gatineau Quebec to the Chaudiere Falls in the middle of the Ottawa River. This image was taken using a camera suspended below a kite line – Kite Aerial Photography (KAP).

Click on image to go to the same image in my Getty Images portfolio.
RobHuntley.ca

KAP 2008-11: Chaudière Falls from Parc des Portageurs. February 27, 2008.

The objective of this KAP outing (Kite Aerial Photography) was to photograph the Chaudière Falls from the Québec side of the Ottawa River. The Chaudière Falls are in the middle of the river, and distanced from public access by the river itself as well as private industry, primarily E.B. Eddy. Besides the out-of-the-ordinary overhead perspective that Kite Aerial Photography provides, it is also an excellent means to get closer to distant subjects. This was also an opportunity to get a unique perspective on the city core. The kite and rig were launched from Parc des Portageurs in Gatineau (what is formerly Hull) which is at the corner or rue Montcalm and rue Laurier across from the office complex Les Terrasses de la Chaudière.

It is tricky getting the correct exposure in this type of winter situation (mix of very light and very dark areas depending on the orientation of the camera), particularly when you have to fix the camera settings before the camera leaves the ground. I exposed for snow in this session with an EV of +2/3. This gave good exposure when the white predominated in the picture. Some of these images are slightly overexposed in the white areas since the scene was already balanced between light and dark areas and the exposure compensation wasn’t required. Other shots which had predominantly dark areas (especially where there were large areas of exposed water) should have had -ve compensation and therefore the whites were grossly overexposed and I have not included any of these images. There are ways around this such as sending the camera up twice with different exposure settings, reshooting all the angles as best as possible. The other alternative would be to bracket the shots of each session and this is recently possible with cameras such as the Canon powershot A570IS with the application of CHDK technology and scripts for bracketing. The camera never stays still as it would on a tripod, so even when bracketing, the composition would likely be quite different within each bracketed series. This is one of the challenges of KAPing. Thank heavens for digital cameras.

There are powerlines shown in several pictures which, for safety reasons, I stayed well away from with the kite and rig. They were further away then my 500′ line anyway. When the wind is right, I’ll probably do the falls from the opposite side (Ontario side of the river) which may be a bit closer to the falls and there would be no powerlines to be concerned with.

Chaudière Falls:

Ottawa and the Ottawa River. E.B. Eddy Bridge in the foreground, Portage Bridge further away, downtown core and the Parliament Buildings in the background:

The edge of the earth? Standing at the abyss with my KAP line. This is Parc des Portageurs in Hull and the water is very clear but looks very black at this time of year. I’ll have to come back in the summer to see if there’s an explanation of the boat hull and dog sculptures:

Ottawa and Hull (Gatineau) and the Ottawa River. Hull, Quebec on the left, Ottawa, Ontario on the right, downtown core and the Parliament Buildings in the background:

These power lines look closer than they are. I was very conscious of the safety concerns of flying kites near power lines. If I had been flying the kite at right angles to the lines (which I wasn’t) you might conclude that the kite must be almost over them for the camera to be where it is. However, this pylon is well out in the river (surrounded by ice not land) and this is a shot looking almost backwards from the direction of the kite line. The top picture of the falls shows the next pylon standing at the edge of the falls. You can see there that I’m not even close with the equipment and the kite line was leftwards of that pylon too.

You can see additional pictures from my KAP 2008-11 outing in the Kite Aerial Photography Gallery on my website.